Quebec judge rejects businesses’ challenge to Bill 101

MONTREAL – A Quebec judge has rejected a legal challenge by about two dozen businesses that were prosecuted for not respecting the province’s French Language Charter.

But lawyer Brent Tyler quickly announced Wednesday he plans to appeal the ruling, which he says didn’t surprise him.

“I told my clients: ‘Don’t even try and think about getting involved in this case if you don’t want to go the whole distance,”’ he said outside the courtroom.

The merchants, who operate businesses in and around the Montreal area, were charged with violating the sign provisions of the law, better known as Bill 101.

The law requires the marked predominance of French on public signs, posters and packaging. It also applies to Internet postings.

Violations included bilingual outdoor signs where the English text was equal to the space allotted to the French text; commercial signs written only in English; and the online promotion of goods and services exclusively in English.

One of the defendants’ main arguments was that the French language is no longer threatened.

The companies also argued the sign law violated their freedom of expression as English-speaking citizens.

In a 69-page ruling, Quebec court Judge Salvatore Mascia dismissed the challenge, ruling the defendants did not show the situation of the French language had changed significantly.

Mascia noted that the declining birthrate among francophones, coupled with the growing number of people whose mother tongue is neither French nor English, places French at a disadvantage.

He also pointed to other social factors such as the dominance of English in North America.

“For now, the evidence presented…does not convince the court that the situation of the French language — judged vulnerable in 1988 by the Supreme Court of Canada and in 2000 and 2001 by the Quebec Superior Court and the Quebec Court of Appeal respectively — is no longer in jeopardy,” Mascia concluded.

Tyler argued there is no rational connection between the language of signs and factors that make a language vulnerable.

“Think about it logically: do people have more babies because of the language of signs? Do they have fewer babies? Do they die earlier? Do they decide to move?”

Five of the merchants also testified that the application of the sign law made them, as members of the English community in Quebec, feel marginalized, ignored and less worthy.

Mascia disagreed.

“In promoting the French language via the signs legislation, the law does not promote prejudice or a negative image of the English community,” he wrote.

The judge also noted that the Quebec government was not trying to regulate the Internet by going after companies that posted messages in English.

Mascia said while the Net could fall within federal jurisdiction, the sign legislation was aimed at regulating the content of the message being conveyed.

“It matters not at all if the message and its contents were transmitted in a paper form or transmitted digitally via the Internet,” he wrote.”The medium is not the message.”

The judge said evidence presented by the accused that their individual rights had been violated was thin.

All but one of the 24 businesses were found guilty of violating Bill 101.

A moving company that had a truck parked on its premises with a unilingual English slogan was acquitted.

The vehicle had been out of commission for several years and was kept on the grounds only for spare parts.